The present invention relates generally to electronic-component mounting apparatus, and more particularly to such an apparatus arranged to mount electronic components on a circuit board under observation by a monitoring device.
Conventionally, mounting apparatus of types as is known in the art are arranged such that an electronic component encased in a component feeder such as a tray are picked up by a suction nozzle of a picking and mounting head and then mounted on a circuit board after correction of two-dimensionally deviation (divergence, shifting) from the normal position. FIG. 1 shows an arrangement of a conventional mounting apparatus. In FIG. 1, on a base illustrated at numeral 1 there is disposed a board positioning section 4 coupled to a conveyor belt 5 of a conveying device, not shown, so that a circuit board 3 is introduced through the conveyor belt 5 into the board positioning section 4 to be positioned and then discharged therefrom. At a side of the board positioning section 4 there is disposed a table 7 for placing a component feeder 6 which encases various types of electronic components such as transistors and resistors P. Further, at a side of the table 7 there is disposed a monitoring device 100 equipped with a stage 101 and camera 102. In addition, above the base 1 there is disposed an X-Y table assembly 8 comprising an X-axis table 8a movable in directions along an X axis and a Y-axis table 8b movable in directions along a Y axis, the X and Y axes being on a horizontal plane and one of the X-axis directions being coincident with the direction that the circuit board 3 is carried through the conveyer belt 5. Designated at numeral 103 is a picking and mounting head which is placed on the Y-axis table 8b and which is equipped with a nozzle 104 for picking up electronic component.
In operation, in accordance with the movement of the X-Y table assembly 8, the picking and mounting head 103 is moved up to a position above the component feeder 6 as indicated by an arrow N1 so that the electronic component P is sucked and picked up by the nozzle 104. Secondly, the picking and mounting head 103 is moved to above the stage 101 as indicated by an arrow N2 so that the camera 102 checks the positional deviations of the electronic component P in the directions X, Y and .theta. (.theta. is a direction of rotation of the electronic component on the horizontal plane about its own axis). Here, the positional deviations of the electronic component P in the directions X and Y are corrected by adjusting the strokes of the picking and mounting head 103 in the directions X and Y through the X-Y table assembly 8 and the positional deviation thereof in the direction .theta. is corrected by rotating the nozzle 104 about the axis of the nozzle 104 by means of a motor, not shown, which is encased in the picking and mounting head 103. Furthermore, the picking and mounting head 103 is moved to above the circuit board 3 as indicated by an arrow N3 so as to mount the electronic component P at a predetermined position of the circuit board 3.
However, the conventional mounting apparatus provides a problem that the moving distance of the picking and mounting head 103 between the component feeder 6 and the circuit board 3 becomes long so that the cycle time becomes long, thereby lowering the working efficiency.